Opponents of Phoenix Coyotes deal miss deadline

Glendale signatures were due Monday

Glendale residents pushing for a referendum to overturn the city's Phoenix Coyotes deal did not hand in signatures Monday.

The city attorney has said the deadline was 30 days after the Glendale City Council approved the lease agreement with Coyotes suitor Greg Jamison, a clock that stopped Monday.

Residents Ken Jones and Joe Cobb say the signatures should be due July 16, a month after the two obtained paperwork from the city clerk to move forward with their referendum campaign.

Jones declined to say how many signatures the duo had collected, but he said that if Glendale refuses them next week, he would consider a legal challenge.

Election-law attorneys say the two residents would likely to face an uphill battle.

Jamison has not yet purchased the team from the National Hockey League, although it's unclear how the referendum talk has slowed the process.

Coyotes captain Shane Doan, now an unrestricted free agent, watched the situation. Would there be another delay in the Coyotes sale? Does it make sense to stick with hockey in the desert when Glendale residents might overturn the deal? He got no answers, and he made no decisions Monday.

The referendum would ask voters in November to repeal the city's 20-year $324 million deal to keep the team at the city-owned Jobing.com Arena.

This is the closest the city has come to securing a buyer since the former owner entered the team into bankruptcy three years ago.

The 80-year-old Jones, at a news conference that he called Monday, said residents should get a chance to vote on the deal.

He spoke defiantly at a fold-up table outside a Glendale library, where he has been collecting signatures the past three weeks. Police have been called several times as tension flared with Coyotes fans also gathered there to distribute information in support of the deal. The city has said at least 1,862 valid signatures are needed.

"We don't want to turn in signatures on the day we don't think they need to be turned in," Jones said.

It's unclear what Glendale would do. The city attorney has said that Monday was the deadline prescribed in state law, but a city spokeswoman said the city would evaluate petitions turned in next week.

If the city rejects the petitions and the two men file suit, the sticking point will be whether they can prove paperwork to launch the referendum was unavailable immediately after the June 8 council vote. Cobb began the process June 15 and completed it the next week. The City Clerk's Office said the documents would have been available.

But there was some confusion. A judge on June 19 ordered the city to clarify that the council did not have the support to allow the deal to immediately go into effect, thus averting a referendum.

"The burden is going to be on them to establish that it was, in fact, unavailable and the city clerk will presumably argue it was available," said Joe Kanefield, a Phoenix attorney.